SoCS Material World

We live in a material world. Lately, it’s been getting to me. The waste.

Not only the empty building that sit and rot while new ones are constantly put up, but the money spent to appease city manager who want “beautification projects” over structural integrity. Don’t fix the streets and pipes that are broken and full of potholes, but let’s plant flowers and build monolithic structures at the mouths of new neighborhoods. They sit there as some kind of status symbol to the wealth of that neighborhood.

And the kids these days. They are so spoiled and coddled they wouldn’t know what to do if they had no phones, cars, and computers but if the world was wiped out tomorrow, would they have a clue how to survive? They have no life skills, that’s not important to teachers anymore. Just know how to pass a test.

The holidays start months before they arrive, marketing their wares, and counting on us to spend thousands of dollars on junk we don’t need, to make ourselves feel worthy or something. We don’t need material things. We just need to spend time with the ones we love, that’s all.

That is why I’ve come to love life on the road. It’s much simpler, we use less than we did in our old house, we have the freedom to go where we want, leave if necessary, and explore the beauty of these United States that some of us have never seen. I can’t understand how one spends their whole lives in one place. I’ve been moved so many times it’s not funny, yet I’ve still only seen a few states and three different countries. The US, Mexico, and Korea. Yes, I visited Honduras and Belize, but that was while on a cruise, so you don’t see much.

I’ve come to value experiences more than things, and relationships mean more than they ever did. I pray for our youth, I pray that I can make some small change in the world, or at least make someone smile along my journey through it. Meanwhile, let’s view a few more pics I’ve taken around the neighborhood on my walks.